Audiences declared Grease the one that they want, tuning in for Fox’s first live musical broadcast, Grease Live. The show earned stellar ratings, even beating the last two NBC specials.
The three-hour broadcast starred Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit and Vanessa Hudgens and started at 7 p.m., an hour earlier than NBC’s specials have previously. According to early Nielsen ratings, the show earned a 4.3 18-49 rating, peaking at 4.6 at one point, notes Variety. Overall, the show averaged 12.2 million viewers.
Those numbers were better than both The Wiz Live! in December and 2014’s Peter Pan Live!. The Wiz had a 3.3 18-49 rating and 11.14 million viewers.
NBC’s first live musical, The Sound of Music Live, still has the record for most viewers at 18.62 million and a 4.6 18-49 rating.
Fox is betting heavily on live musicals, even more than NBC, which may want to rethink its plans to only air these during the Christmas season. Fox has The Passion planned for March 20 and is plotting a taped remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the fall.